Mental health support in the spotlight

CAMPAIGNERS met decision makers to discuss the future of local support services at a roundtable event hosted by mental health charity, Rethink Mental Illness and chaired by MP for Loughborough, Nicky Morgan.

CAMPAIGNERS met decision makers to discuss the future of local support services at a roundtable event hosted by mental health charity, Rethink Mental Illness and chaired by MP for Loughborough, Nicky Morgan.

More than 20 representatives from clinical commissioning groups new commissioners of mental health services, NHS trusts in Leicestershire, local authority officials, the police, the local voluntary sector, and people with direct experience of mental health services, attended the event at Loughborough Town Hall.

Concerns of local residents discussed at the event were: how the NHS, social care services and police can work together to support people affected by mental illness and stop them falling between the cracks in the system; preventing people affected by mental illness dying up to 20 years earlier than the rest of the population by ensuring their physical health needs are being met and finding ways in which people who use mental health services and their families have a voice.

Nicky Morgan MP said: I want Loughborough, Charnwood and Leicestershire to be seen as places where those with mental health problems get the best and quickest assistance and where they and their families are given all the support needed to recover.